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Doctors beat BDCC Chairman’s XI by 3 runs


 

Doctors                       224 for 7

 

Chairman’s XI            221 all out

 

  Doctors celebrated the start of their season and their 500th match with a game against an invitation XI selected by their chairman Dave Rooke who was one of five people present who played in the first Doctors match in July 1983, the others being Graham Fergusson and Peter Reed who are also still playing regularly and Steve Dorrett and Richard Lee who came out of retirement (again) for the occasion.

 Doctors were put in to bat and Will Chandler, on his birthday, made the worst possible start to the season by cutting the first ball of the match from Richard Purchase straight into the hands of Paddy MacLennan at cover.  Andrew Paisley and John Ogle then laid a solid foundation for the innings against accurate bowling form Purchase and Harry Lee.  Purchase made the next breakthrough when Paisley (14) gloved a lifter to keeper David Williamson and Ogle (21), having looked impregnable, dollied a simple catch to square leg off MacLennan (1-26).  This brought in Nick Bray to join Fergusson for an exhibition of pulling and driving in a partnership of 89 which was ended when Bray (25) top-edged Richard Budd to Williamson.  Fergusson retired on 55 not out but Sam Powell, unleashed after a long wait in the pavilion, produced an even more spectacular innings of 51 not out.  Skipper Phil Barker (17) lent able support until he was bowled by Lee (1-35) and Purchase (3-16) and Budd (2-32) picked up wickets at the death, the latter having the satisfaction of bowling his father, Jeremy, off the last ball of the innings.

  Jeremy Budd gained a measure of revenge in a fine off spinning bowling partnership with Chandler which yielded only 20 runs from the first 11 overs.  Rob Adcock opened out but Charles Macadam and Peter Reed (1-25) swept away the top order and when Macadam (3-23) bowled Adcock (31) the Chairman’s XI was struggling at 47 for 4.  Purchase and Lee changed all that with an all-out assault worth 105 runs which brought the asking rate down to a manageable seven an over.  Both batsmen retired having reached 50 and the match swung again as Barker and Oliver Budd (2-48) combined to great effect, assisted by three stumpings and a catch from keeper Fergusson.  Purchase (57) re-entered the fray but lasted only one more ball from Barker (3-25) as he was nonchalantly caught at long off by Bray.  With nine wickets down Lee came back to join the redoubtable Dorrett and the runs flowed again.  Sixteen runs were needed from the last two overs but a fine over from Barker yielded only seven.  Powell (1-35) saw five, including a four through the slips, taken from his first two balls but then came up with two dot balls and a superb yorker to Dorrett (16) which won the match, leaving Lee unbeaten on 81.